Posts tagged “racetrack”

A few weeks ago some friends and I took a trip to a place we had been planing to go to for months. That place was Death Valley National Park of course. To someone who has never been there you might think “it’s a desert”, and you would be right. One of the hottest, driest and lowest deserts on earth, but also one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We happened to go at the perfect time of year. It was no hotter than 60º F in the day time. The forecast called for a chance of rain but there was none. Only clouds and 50 mph winds at night which made trying to sleep an adventure of it’s own.

The first place we went to was a large flatland known as the Racetrack. It was a most interesting place. The rocks that you see in the photos all come from the large rock formation called “The Grandstands” and they move the great distances only by the force of the high winds. The light out there made for interesting portraits. Even with a back-lit subject and direct sunlight, the shadows were not overpowering. The next day we visited the sand dunes and it was my first time walking on any dune. It was very cool and I am glad to have gotten some shots off before the winds picked up and I got a face full of the valley’s golden goodness.

In just the few day it was clear that we hardly scratched Deaths sandy surface. I can’t believe that it’s taken me this long to go and I certainly won’t let my life go by without going again.

On our way out of the valley we found that the incoming storm left a fresh layer of snow on the other side of the pass. Nothing like topping off a trip to the desert like throwing some snowballs.